“Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube – Let others wage wars, you happy Austria, get married”. This famous saying characterizes the marriage policy of the Habsburgs. Which important connections enlarged the Habsburg Empire?
It all began with Emperor Maximilian I (1459 – 1519), who very successfully pursued the Habsburgs’ marriage policy. Through his marriage to Mary of Burgundy, the rich and only heiress, this area became part of the Habsburg Empire. Burgundy was regarded as a major European power in the 15th century.
It was a love match that produced two children, Philipp and Margarethe. The son, Philip, called the Fair, was married to Joan the Mad from Spain and so Spain was acquired. Joan was the daughter of the Catholic kings Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I, the heiress of Castile and Leon.
Philip’s sons, Charles V and Ferdinand I, became the future rulers and succeeded Maximilian I on the throne as Holy Roman Emperor. After Maximilian’s death, his son Philip the Fair should have succeeded to the throne, but he died far too young and his wife Joan the Mad was unable to reign due to a mental illness.
Their son, Charles V (1500-1558), became the ruler of a world empire in which the sun never set. From his maternal grandfather (Ferdinand II of Aragon) he had inherited Spain, the Kingdom of Naples with Sicily and Sardinia, as well as the territories conquered in the New World. His paternal grandfather (Maximilian I) bequeathed him the Habsburg lands and the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire.
Charles V felt more attracted to Spain and agreed a treaty of partition with his brother Ferdinand in 1521. Ferdinand I received the Austrian hereditary lands incl. Tyrol, Karl all of Spain incl. the possessions in Italy, Burgundy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands as well as the conquered territories in the New World.
Bohemia and Hungary were married off, which was the result of a clever move by Maximilian. He arranged a double wedding with King Wladislaw II, the then ruler of Hungary and Bohemia, at the Vienna Princes’ Day in 1515.
His son and heir to the throne, Ludwig, was to marry Maria, a granddaughter of Maximilian, while Wladislav’s daughter Anna was to marry one of Maximilian’s grandsons (Karl or Ferdinand). Ferdinand was ultimately the lucky one who was allowed to marry Anna. Her brother Louis died childless in the battle against the Turks and so Hungary and Bohemia fell to the Habsburgs.
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